The present invention relates generally to manifolds for the interconnection and control of fluid actuable devices and more particularly to such manifolds which may be concatenated to supply a plurality of fluid actuable liquid dispensers while still providing individual control for each such liquid dispenser.
Pneumatically actuated lubricating systems are known and may be constructed in accordance with the general teachings of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,421,600 and 3,389,799. Such systems have as their basic element an air operated injector device, for example of the type commercially available from Master Pneumatic-Detroit, Inc. In such positive displacement lubrication systems oil is supplied, normally by gravity flow, from a reservoir or central oil supply system, to the individual air operated injectors. When an air pulse is applied to an air inlet of the injector, a piston is actuated driving an oil metering pin into an oil metering chamber, and oil is thereby dispensed through a check valve from that chamber as the piston continues its motion. When the air pulse is removed, the oil metering pin, under spring action, returns to its original position. Piston stroke is typically adjustable to determine the amount of oil dispensed for each cycle of the injector.
Such commercially available air operated injectors frequently have air and oil inlet ports which extend completely through the injector, thereby allowing a number of such injectors to be stacked together with intervening gasket material, so that the entire stack of injectors may be actuated by a single air source to perform their individual oiling functions. With such a stack of injectors, individual injectors can not be easily disabled or shut off, and the number of such injectors which may be stacked and simultaneously actuated is limited to about ten such injectors. Mounting blocks to be placed adjacent the uppermost and lowermost injector in such a stack are commercially available for facilitating connection of the oil and air supply lines to the stack, and for sealingly closing the unused ports at the opposite ends of the stack. Such mounting blocks do not even provide for control of the stack of injectors, let alone control of individual injectors.